London to Brighton

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s7ephanie

middle of nowhere in France
My 2 sons are training for London to Brighton (on Mountain bikes) what food and drink will help with training please and thank you x
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
If they are doing the annual melee organised by the British Heart foundation, they'll be walking or stationary quite often and the pace is slow so it's unlikely to be a high octane ride.

Jelly babies, malt loaf, bananas and SIS energy powder mixed with water will see them through. There's plenty of watering stations so they could take the SIS powder with them and replenish their water bottles regularly en route.

I've done the ride as a night ride (FNRttC) with The Fridays and used pies as a calorie source topped up with cake, sandwiches and tea at around the half way mark.
 
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vickster

Legendary Member
They just need to ride their bikes as much as possible, 100 miles a week should work well on MTBs - how old are they? Jelly babies, malt loaf, cake while doing distances...avoid booze, get used to how much liquid they need, get plenty of rest. I don't think it's a hard ride due to all the other bike traffic. A friend of mine did it on an MTB no bother and she really isn't much of a sportswoman although I expect she'll destroy me when we do the London-Surrey 100, she is helped by being 45kg lighter and 10 years younger though!
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
but what about the weeks before? they want to get fit !!!!

I hauled my 24 stone ass around the route including getting up Ditchling Beacon non stop. I doubt that your boys will struggle. Just getting some regular miles in will do the job in addition to the nutritional advice. It's not that big a challenge - honestly.

One thing that will help them considerably is changing the MTB tyres to slicks if they haven't already done so.
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
Or stop at the scout hut in Burstow for a hot dog, The Crown in Turners Hill for some paella, and The Bull in Ditchling for another sausage in a bun. That and a few pints should do it.

I'm almost tempted to turn up with some emergency pies to get me between feeding stations.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
I would have something with lots of pasta or potatoes the night before, porridge and a banana for breakfast, and some fig rolls stuffed into my pockets. Take or buy some ham rolls half way there. I drink lemonade with a spoon of salt added. I don't think it's necessary to go on a serious planned diet but I'm no great athlete.
 

threebikesmcginty

Corn Fed Hick...
Location
...on the slake
There was a guy on the FNRttC when I did it that had popped out for a packet of fags or just on his way back from the pub or something, he was in mufti on an old gas-pipe effort or similar and he had no bother getting the ride done - kudos.
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
In our day, @rich p and I would have been able to run it........being veterans of the South Downs Way 80 that we were :laugh:

As I recall, it was about 52 miles to Ditching Beacon from Petersfield and then a further 28 to Eastbourne Rugby Club.

Ah, the memories.





(Forgive an old man his rambling recollections......please)
Rocky, old chap, you mean to say that you didn't do the iconic L2B?
I did it twice, absolute effing torture on the feet, running on tarmac for 7 1/2 hours though.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Ten miles from the end of my first 60 mile ride, I stopped at a bar for a small beer. Big mistake...it went straight to my legs. The rest of the ride was a bit of a challenge. Save the beers until the end.
 
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